"Is your name actually Mel?" Shin asked as he walked alongside her toward her brothers' house, his hands in his pockets.

She glanced over at him, "Yeah, Mel is short for Melody. It's just my nickname."

"Huh…" he said before he was quiet again.

Melody turned to look at him, wondering what was going on. He was usually quiet but something about it felt odd this time. She couldn't help but wonder where his mind had gone.

"You know you won't be able to keep it a secret from all the guys. Especially since the only thing keeping them from recognizing you as that girl they saw the other day as soon as that hat comes off again."

"Yeah, yeah. I'll figure out a way to keep them from finding out."

"Yeah well, good luck with that. I'll see you later." He waved over his shoulder and turned to walk across the street away from her.

Melody watched him walk off, "He's so weird."

"You're one to be calling someone weird."

She spun around to see Kaoru walking up to her with a grin, his bag tossed over his shoulder, "What's that supposed to mean?"

He laughed and shook his head before snatching her hat off her head and putting it on his own, "It means that you're weird, little sister. Who's the guy?"

"Just someone from my school."

"Some guy who walked you home?" His eyebrow rose and he nudged her in the side with his elbow. "Even when you're dressed as a guy, everyone seems to be drawn to you."

Melody blinked and scowled at him, "Let's just go home," she mumbled and walked up to the door.

"Where did you leave Nate at?"

"School I guess serves him right for leaving me behind the other day."

Kaoru laughed and walked in the door before Melody, but paused just over the threshold, "Dad?"

Melody blinked and jumped on Kaoru's back so she could see over him, he was too tall otherwise, just like all her brothers. Sure enough, her father was there, standing in the hallway, in the process of pulling on his shoes.

"Hey, you two. How's school going?" Their father smiled at them as he got to his feet.

Melody was the first to answer; Kaoru was still surprised to see the old man, "Fine. What are you doing here?"

"That's no way to greet your father, young lady. I had to fly in to see a colleague of mine. I'll be heading back out tomorrow morning. Right now I have to go see someone about my move here in a few months."


When working on homework had begun driving her insane, Melody couldn't help but get out of the house. She was the only one home and for someone who grew up as one of the youngest and the only girl in a house full of boys, quiet was always unsettling, even when she had music playing, without brothers around to drive her crazy it was weird.

A walk would be a good way to clear her mind and to relax. The cool night air and stars were usually enough, currently she was having problems getting her mind off of the fact that her identity as a girl was in the hands of someone like Shin Sawada. He was a hoodlum after all.

It was late enough in the evening for there to be very few people out on the streets so that was peaceful at least, though also a little creepy. Melody was used to going out alone and looking for things to do or meeting up with friends but that was back home in the US, in Japan, she didn't know her way around or know the people near as well, not to mention the rumors of Yakuza groups that always made their rounds.

Of course, too stubborn to admit she was afraid, even to herself; she kept on strolling around until a glance over her shoulder, alerted her to the fact that two guys were following along behind her. Their hands were shoved in their pockets and they didn't seem much older than her. They were nudging at each other and grinning.

If it weren't so late, she'd just assume they were guys just checking out a random girl who happened to be heading in the same direction but something about their grins and the time just made it seem wrong, like she should start running. She shrugged it off though, and mumbled, "My imagination… I hope…"

Chewing at her lip, she kept up her walking, not giving the guys any indication that she knew they were still there but it was like she could feel their gaze on her back. It made the hair rise on the back of her neck and caused her to shiver slightly which she could easily blame on the chilly air and her choice in wearing a tank top despite it.

After about thirty minutes and making random turns, she came to the conclusion that it wasn't her imagination but because of her last random turn, she'd ended up in a dead end ally way and they were cornering her. It was a dangerous mistake on her part.

Wide blue eyes stared at the two oncoming guys. A flash in the right hand of one of the guys told her he had to have a knife or some other weapon of the kind.

"Whatcha doing out here so late, girly? You don't look like you're from here?" the taller of the two sneered at her, the knife in his hand waving side to side.

Once they were almost on top of her he held the knife out to her. "Make sure you keep your mouth shut, girly." The other one warned for his friend.

Just as the shorter one reached to grab her she stomped on his foot as hard as she could, causing him to yell in pain and grab at it. Then she took advantage of the other's surprise by her assault by bringing her knee up between her legs as hard as she could and moved around them to take off running.

They didn't let her go so easily though, angrily, the one with a knife reached out to her as she passed him as he hunched over but he did manage to graze her cheek with the knife even though he missed her.

Melody kept running, the stinging in her cheek was nothing compared to the fear she felt. She heard them running behind her but she was faster, luckily. As she came upon a fenced in bark yard she turned the corner around it, leaving their sight and quickly and as nimbly as possibly, she scrambled up and over the side, landing in the bushes on the other side.

She held her breath as she heard them run by, obviously assuming she'd kept running in that direction. Once they were gone she climbed out of the bush she was laying in and leaned against the wooden and high fence, exhaling a deep breath and attempting to let her breathing and heart rate return to normal. Mel loved running but running while being chased by people who meant to hurt you was a different story.

Mel saw the dog sniffing at her feet before she saw the feet of someone standing in front of her. Slowly she looked up at him, fearing the worst.

He was a large man, a lot bigger than her with a scar on his face, obviously Japanese. He glared at her, "What do you think you're doing out here, little girl?" He said with his arms crossed over his chest.

The dog began growling lowly at her before she could answer. She gasped and pressed against the fence as much as she could, "Hiding from some creeps…" she told him quietly.

"Do you have any idea where you ended up?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. She noticed now that there were three other guys standing behind him, two younger than him and one who looked about the same age.

She shook her head slowly; she didn't know where she was.

"This is the Oedo clan!" he shouted at her.


Author's Note: I'm so sorry this took so long but here it is! I hope you enjoyed it!